The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for producing final printed products which include inserts.
In EP-A-O 911 289 and the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 6,311,968, a method of this type and a corresponding apparatus are described. In this known method, first of all a first folded and closed main product is introduced into a pocket-like holding compartment and is subsequently opened during its movement along the processing path. Inserts (partial products and/or enclosures) are inserted into the opened main product. Once this insertion operation has been completed, the main product with the inlays located inside is closed and placed against one wall of the holding compartment. A second folded, closed main product is then guided into the same holding compartment and, in the same way as the first main product, is opened during its movement along the processing path, is provided with inserts and is then closed. At the end of the processing path, the two finished, closed end products, which each consist of the main product and inserts inserted into the latter, are removed from the holding compartment.
In this known method, the two main products are guided into a holding compartment one after another and provided with inserts. The finishing of the two end products in the same holding compartment is thus carried out along two successive sections of the processing path. The processing path is therefore comparatively long. The end product that is finished first remains in the processing path during the production of the second end product and is removed from said processing path after the second end product has been finished.
The present invention is, then, based on the object of providing a method and an apparatus of the type mentioned above in which printed products consisting of a printed product and inserts can be produced with little expenditure on time and apparatus.